Former Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe has been arrested in Colombo as part of a sweeping anti-corruption drive led by the new government.
The 76-year-old politician, who lost the last election to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, was taken into custody on Friday 22 after police questioned him about a September 2023 stopover in London.
Wickremesinghe travelled to the UK following a G77 summit in Havana to attend a ceremony at the University of Wolverhampton, where his wife, Maithree, received an honorary professorship.
A senior police detective confirmed the arrest, stating, “We are producing him before the Colombo Fort magistrate,” and added that charges were being pressed for allegedly using state resources for personal purposes.
Wickremesinghe has consistently denied wrongdoing, insisting that his wife’s expenses were paid by her and that no government funds were used. However, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has alleged that state money covered his travel as well as the costs of his security detail. Three of his former senior aides have also been questioned this month in connection with the case.
The arrest comes as President Dissanayake pushes forward with his campaign pledge to root out corruption, a central promise of his administration since taking office in September.
Wickremesinghe, who assumed the presidency in July 2022 following Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation after mass protests, had been credited with stabilising Sri Lanka’s economy.
He negotiated a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund in 2023, following the country’s worst financial crisis in modern history.
The case is expected to test both Sri Lanka’s political stability and the credibility of its ongoing anti-graft measures.
